Prague, Czech Republic
50° 4' N 14° 28' E
Oct 08, 2007 14:32
Distance 290km

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Can't wait to see lovely Prague...

Text written in: English

It seems like its taken such a long time coming, but finally we arrived, by train, in the Czech Republic! I've always been very excited about coming to Prague, but of course the one city im dying to explore is when the production company puts us in a hotel out in the sticks, near the venue, but no where near town!! Ahh well, fortunate we're right by the Invalid metro station (Invalidovna officially i think!)

Funnily enough after seeing beautiful Bratislava, i was expecting more from Prague, in the way of grand architecture, buildings, boulevards, and less in the way of strip joints and go-go bars, but i see the stag night phenomenom has had its influence!! I only hope Bratislava doesnt end up the way Prague is, with many borded up buildings amongst the 'non-stop' bars and disused tram lines...but then that was out by our hotel, and not in the lovely old town centre!..but personally the view from the 17th floor all the way into town to the castle up on the hill, was well worth a little desolation!!

Struck by tourist fever once more, afer china had finally beaten it out of us...our days were filled with metro stations and busy street cafes, astronomical clocks & plazas, bridges and statues, goulash and the speciality of chicken stuffed with another meat such as pork!!! Having finally visited a place which held interest for my dad, the parental unit came to visit...so spent the day dragging mum, dad and ben around Prague Castle!! The day was jam packed but well spent...with the noon changing of the guard, alleyways and fountains, the massive Cathedral of St.Vitus, the immense dungeon historical displays, mulled wine and pastries in the cafe & the old living quarters in a tiny thatched roof style street-we werent short of things to do!!! so why i felt the need to climb the 900 odd steps to the top of st.vitus' clock tower i'll never know...and im not sure when the parents and boyfriend who willingly followed will ever forgive me!! But wow the view was well worth it!! The Charles bridge in the distance, with all the people milling around, taking photos, selling postcards and busking for crowns...the main thoroughfare from the old town to the castle and man does it get busy!!

 ...so busy that even though the Charles bridge is the most re-visited place ive photographed this year, i felt the need to get some alone time for better pics...so 5.15am i leapt out of bed (ha!!) and bustled myself down to the metro, straight into town for some pre-dawn pics!! Ben opted to stay in bed! while i saw a few other fellow photographers...had a brill morning snapping away as the dawn broke through some very heavy cloud and even found a pizza place open for a slice on the metro on the way back to bed!! (the conversions to black and white happened later after much sleep!)

I did enjoy my first official photography based dawn trip out, (as opposed to sunrise over cool place such as Ankor Wat) but i have to say my fave photo is now the Charles Bridge at sunset, which we managed to catch on our day off, after the day at the castle!!...its the one time of day i dont usually get to see, which is such a lot of wasted opportunity...so i didnt want to waste this one!..and am very pleased with the result of the bridge with the castle in the background :-)

You may also have noticed a few pictures of the metro!...well i loved it!! The tunnels are windy, the escalators are immensley long and the decor and signs are wonderfully eastern retro chic!...or are they just actually from the 60's/70's, me thinks so! A brilliant subject, ben finally showed signs of exasperation after over an hour of metro journeying, stopping at every station to see what colour the wall tiles were and snapping a train leaving!! Well he'll change his mind when he becomes famous for being 'man reading book on metro platform', when i get published ;-) hehehe!

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Photos / videos of "Can't wait to see lovely Prague...":

view from our hotel over the city Prague by night the old town square metro station walls!! old town by day the astronomical clock!! old decorated buildings cafes on the sqaure regal old buildings in the centre of town ye olde Praha!
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